Ron Paul: Don't blame the rich for income gap

"When you do you destroy jobs, you destroy the middle class, the transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle class to the very wealthy and we see that," Paul said at a speech before the Chamber of Commerce here. "The danger of this, though, is to blame those who are earning money and have a good living for all the problems. See, there's a big difference if you earn money because you produce a good product and you didn't receive any benefits from the government, you shouldn't be penalized."

The stock market rise and new GDP growth numbers yesterday may have been a positive uptick for the economy, but the changes did not impress Paul. He described the economic growth marginal and superficial.

"At the same time, real income went down 1.7 percent," Paul said. "We are getting consumers to spend money and dig deeper holes for themselves. But the real income is down. That is what the real problem is when you destroy currency."

Consistent with his usual stump speech, Paul criticized the Federal Reserve Bank for what he calls "artificially low" interest rates that have created a "bubble" in the economy.

"When the bubble is formed, everybody is happy," he told about 90 businesspeople over breakfast. "Looks like a perpetual wealth machine, but it's nothing more than a bubble. There's plenty of bubbles that we have depended on. First it was a NASDAQ bubble, then it was a housing bubble; right now I think we have a bond bubble."